Mo Diame should be able to play tomorrow night after he traveled back to Newcastle after Senegal were eliminated by Cameroon 5-4 on penalties form the Africa Cup of Nations, after a 0-0 draw after extra time on Saturday.

No choice we all have to believe now that what we have got will be good enough to get us up. Got to battle stay out of trouble & injury free. Next two games are vital or Reading and Leeds will down our throats.

We’ll need yo because we have only a half decent Championship side. Not too many good enough for the Prem next season IF we get there I’m sure you’ll agree. On spendings in this window (some of which have been ridiculous) we’ll probably need realistically £100M +

Just landed back in the toon and know signing couple of injuries and we will be f..k not even a midfielder for cover Ashley is up to his old tricks can’t see rafa sticking round when promises are broken there’ll be plenty of clubs who would like him .

Expat…… Well done mate. I really did think that it was just us playing the game until someone cracked and deals were done. Never mind I was wrong and you were right. I shall be donating £100 to the SBR Foundation right away.

Consider these: In rafa’s book he talked about how he liked to deal with net spend and cash money for following season that want spent, that might be what he’s doing here. Rafa might even think we can do better in the summer. Also reading his recent interviews he stresses how January is hard to do business on with clubs not wanting to sell etc. I’ve seen no solid evidence so far that Ashley is back in control, rafa will walk if he is.

Make of that what you will, I might be wrong, but I’m taking all this speculation with a pinch of salt with no hard evidence or facts or any obvious signs in rafa’s press conferences. It’s simply sh*t stirring by journalists to get attention etc

Ok so it’s said that Palace pulled out the Townsend but the big question is why.

Repost

With Reading but three points behind us, albeit we’ve got two games in hand on them, we really need three points tomorrow night. A defeat’d make things tricky going forward.

It’s seemingly Palace who called the deal off but we don’t know why. We need to hear positive words from Rafa and oh, a statement from the club wouldn’t go amiss – a statement why the Townsend deal failed, not the usual over the line crap.

Rafa needs to know he has the unconditional support of the owner too. Anyway, onwards and upwards and our fans really need to get behind Rafa and the lads tomorrow – discontent can only be counterproductive

Chronicle report stating Cashley wants to hand more control back to doddering old Carr worries me & certainly won’t impress Rafa. Crowd important tomorrow night and quick goal in first 20 mins to settle em. Derby is the big test on Saturday.

Lilo, just on your comment from the previous thread. Can’t agree that the tactics Benitez employs is setting us up for next season in the Premiership. I think that was your point. Having logs like Lascelles and Clark hoofing the ball up for Gayle to scamper onto and take advantage of mediocre defending at the other end won’t cut it. Interminably passing backwards and sideways won’t either. In my view we have seen nothing from Benitez to suggest he is developing a style of game to compete at the top level. And that’s been the hallmark of his career. He has had the luxury of being at clubs who can afford galactico players who do it themselves. Fans at Madrid, Napoli and Inter were well aware of that, and even the few coherent binddippers who exist came to realise that in time.

I like the football we’re playing at the moment, and when we’re in gear we play it so well at times. Playing out from the back, being patient and carving opponents open, controlling the game, while we can adapt our game to different opponents and be more direct and keep a good defensive shape.

+ Strengths Finishing scoring chances Very Strong Shooting from direct free kicks Very Strong Creating chances using through balls Very Strong Creating scoring chances Strong Attacking down the wings Strong Creating long shot opportunities Strong Attacking set pieces Strong Aerial duels Strong Defending set pieces Strong – Weaknesses (Team has no significant weaknesses) Newcastle United’s Style of Play Attacking down the right Short passes Attempt through balls often Possession football Play with width Playing in their own half Rotate their first eleven

Well that wasn’t a very good final transfer day….but back to business the morra night….got to get a win….to keep the distance between us and reading and to put brighton under pressure on thursday…..my worry is its a pressure game and we have been brittle when it comes these type of games….cant handle the pressure,the occasion, expectation…whatever….but if we are in the playoffs at the end of the season we wont go up in my eyes, because the same reasons….need grow a pair and battle it out from now till the end of the season.

If there is a 13M release clause in his contract and we were willing to meet it to bring back Townsend this window then Palace could not have stopped it. Only Townsend and Newcastle not being able to agree terms would have killed a move, or Townsend just not being interested to play in the Championship.

Assuming Townsend was interested to come back to Tyneside then it would support the case that Newcastle wanted to do a loan deal and could not agree loan terms with Palace. I think this is the more likely case.

In the end, the reasons why this or that did or didn’t happen don’t matter. The supposed deal for McCarthy at 20M didn’t make much sense to me at that supposed price. Even 13M for Townsend after the season he is having, and no one else other than us supposedly being interested, didn’t make much sense either. Bringing in just anyone for the sake of it doesn’t help. We seem to have a strong squad with a couple holes should injury or suspension hit us but we are still in the top two despite Shelvey’s incident and I hope that we give it our all the rest of the way. #HWTL!

I fail to see how the activation of a release clause then transpires into a loan deal – do not think this can happen. Activation is only that if the interested club agrees to meet the release clause figure – ie they are willing to pay the full amount. The interested club and the player then discuss the personal terms.

So my reading is that we did not make an offer to buy him/activate his release clause. If we were involved in the potential deal it must have been a loan request from the off.

No doubt some more details of the Townsend saga will emerge over the coming days, but my first feeling is this… Please let Palace and Andros get relegated. Even if it is at the expense of Sunderland staying up.

If I were Ashley and wanted to lay out as little as possible this window but felt that fans might think badly of me if I did just that, I’d consider letting it be known that we were prepared to pay Palace’s asking price for Townsend and then put it out that Palace pulled out of the deal (in effect refused the offer), I’d get Keith Bishop on the case.

This was a prudent window. No chances, nothing needed. People WANTED things, sure, but nothing was needed.

Given our current squad we are in the automatic promotion places even with a 4-league match ban for our what appears to be our most critical player. We’ve weathered the AFCON although results over Jan haven’t been great. We’re out of the cups so now only have one thing on our mind, automatic promotion.

Ashley will be overjoyed by the window results and should take this as a sign that Rafa is also committed to the long-term project. What if he had made rash signings to appease the fans that didn’t turn out? What if he had spent 20m on McCarthy and he had been no better than Hayden so didn’t get minutes? What if we had spent 5-10m on up and comers from other leagues that didn’t pan out? That means that the kitty is that much emptier in the summer and the players that are being brought in this summer aren’t guaranteed that they’re going to be critical pieces of the infrastructure for Rafa’s PL squad.

As it is, if you’re being recruited by Rafa this summer you know he’s got the best interests of NUFC in mind and is building a squad intentionally and systematically for the future and…YOU are being recruited for that. It’s a different sell if this window goes differently and money is not spent well but spent to appease, but it didn’t.

I wanted a winger and a CM before the window and still would like them this summer, but am entirely happy with the way the window went and look forward to seeing how Rafa reshapes things this summer.

I think team is right where we thought/hoped it would be at this time of the year which is in one of automatic promotion places which is very good look at Villa and Norwich this was never going to be easy

As far as transfers go our business in summer was good and it’s no surprise that the players that are familiar with league (Ritchie,Murphy,Hayden,Clark,Diame) are adapting faster buts its not to say the others won’t come through such as Lazaar or Sels just need more time. Let’s not forget Yedlin,Hanley and Atsu the ladder which we have option to buy although we don’t know the # but think we should.

So that’s 10 players unless I missed a few that are in squad this season that were brought in over summer and yet some are disappointed over Townsend and not knowing whether it was our fault or Palace who backed out and are trying to put some type of negative cloud over the board and team this season, pffff save it.

The Rafalution has only just begun lads enjoy the ride and stay behind what we got

Right on we must have been typing at same time lol did not see your post but see we were on same page. The club is in good hands with Rafa only reason I would want Townsend is if Rafa wants him simple as that and if board did their best and Palace backed out then so be it as long as Rafa is ok with that.

Amen to that. I can’t see us anywhere but automatic promotion at the end of the season barring catastrophic circumstances (which you can never base things on anyway). That said, let Rafa sell the PL project to the recruits this summer, don’t waste time trying to sell people on a half season in the Championship with the prospect of being a big part of a PL team.

Players know that there will be an overhaul this summer as this squad was specifically developed to succeed in the championship. It’s probably that Rafa had conversations this window and said, “listen, we will be up in the summer, let’s talk then and I can show you where we’re headed. Don’t take our current position for our trajectory.” We’ll see what happens this summer when it matters. In the meantime,

I’m excited to see a cleanup job in the Championship and see dedication from the squad to do just that.

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My latest bone scans and CAT scans were completed on Wednesday of this week and yesterday I met with my oncologist Dr. Dhruva to look over the results.

The stage four cancer remains stabilized and has not spread any further over the last six months.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in early 2017 after being in remission for six years.

The cancer metastasized through the bones to different parts of the body and the treatment I am undergoing is hormone treatment.

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